The Real USA

2016, stamps and paper, 33 x 48 inches.

(Another version of “The USA Far Away”)

I don’t have any idea where they all came from, but I have an ENORMOUS collection of stamps from the USA. My artistic solution for all these stamps has been to make maps of the US. Each stamp usually represents a state or is relevant to a certain state, so it is clear where each one belongs. After more than 10 years of disorganised stamps, they are finally divided into their perspective states and a few other categories. I can finally use them productively. “The Real USA” is called this because Alaska and Hawaii are included and we always seem to forget them. It is also real because of all the space in the middle. It is amazing to think that the area between all these places is as big as the bulk of the mainland. How can we claim to be United?